Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Felix Victor Pavia was born on the 1st of July 1897, in Semaphore, SA and was the youngest son of Victor John Pavia and Annie Sophia Pavia (Burgess). Pavia excelled academically, completing one and a half years in the junior cadets and four years in the senior cadets. In 1911, at 14 years old, Pavia’s talents were recognized when he won a Muirden College Scholarship. The next year, he passed the Civil Service examination with honors and topped the honors list in the Junior Commercial examination.

On the 9th of September 1916, Pavia enlisted in the Great War. He was working as a draftsman. He was 5,5 and 112 lbs. He had a medium complexion, brown eyes and hair. He was only 19 years old when he joined, meaning he needed to get permission from his parents to join. When embarking on the 16th of July 1917, he was 20 years old. Pavia was placed into the Private ranking.

Arriving in Liverpool, England on the 16th of September 1917, he only had one night's rest and then was sent to Army Medical Corps Training Depot the next day. Pavia trained in everything that he needed to be trained in when traveling to France on the 2nd of November 1917 meaning spending an estimated two months in Liverpool. When becoming more competent, he was taken on the 3rd Australian Field Ambulance as a reinforcement on the 11th of November 1917, staying in the 3rd field ambulance for the rest of the war. Years later, Pavia was attached for duty to the Australian War Record Service in London 1st of March 1919.

Pavia was then appointed as an Extra Regimental Sergeant (ER/Sgt) on the 10th of April 1919, this is a temporary job in a different unit than what Pavia would usually work in. After the temporary swap, he was sent back to the 3rd Field Ambulance. Later in the year, he reported to Millbank Hospital on 20th of the September 1919, before marching out with his unit in Sutton Veny to await repatriation to Australia.

Pavia sadly got a fever and reported to the 1st Australian General Hospital on the 13th of October 1919. After waiting there for a while and slowly getting better, and was luckily granted permission to leave on a trip to London, from the 16th of October 1919 to the 18th of October 1919. He arrived back in Australia on the 7th of November 1919 to finish his apprenticeship with AIF and left on the 24th of December 1919, when reaching home, he was discharged from AIF a couple of days later the 6th of January 1920.

After the war ended, Pavia was sent to work for the AWRS for a short amount of time. Moving on from the AWRS, he decided to go and work with the signalling department for railways.